SL1 epsilon section
EPSILON SECTION: RETURN OF THE UPF
SOMETHING'S NOT RIGHT
When they return to Star Law HQ the characters finally feel like they may get a break. After a long trip back they get themselves cleaned up and resupplied (as well as a hot shower, decent food and a soft bed few a few hours). They awaken to a nervous RIK'Ss'Ik: "I'm not certain what to do; but I feel I must inform you of a possible problem. Earlier today the 'General' of House RIK was summoned to the Commercial Council Building for an urgent meeting. He hasn't left yet; but he has issued new orders for the troops. The attache' showed them to me and I'm not certain what to make of them. He has instructed our forces to push foreward after the Sathar; out from the protection of the Planetary Batteries. If we move the troops out there and the Sathar use their attack ships, it could wipe out our forces, and leave us defensless. I was able to convince the attache' to delay delivering the message for 30 minutes, but that's the best I could do. I checked with the other houses, and they haven't heard from their representatives on the Commercial Council since yesterday. It seems a bit odd considering the current situation. What should we do?" Yesturday a group of Sathar agents managed to infiltrate the Commercial Council Building and take the Council hostage. They forced the members to call for the "General" to come for an urgent meeting. Upon his arrival they took him hostage as well. They are using the Council members (one of which is involved with the "General") to force him to give orders to the army which will allow the Sathar to quickly overwelm them before the UPF fleet arrives. The Council will avoid answering any messages from the outside, as they are in a "closed session" discussing the war. If told it is an urgent Star Law matter; they will look mildly nervous as they answer on vidphone any character concerns. They will outline their strategy as sound according to their best computer estimates; since they feel the Sathar fleet will be preoccupied fighting the UPF to bother with their troops, and it may provide a diversion to split some of the Sathar forces from the UPF fleet if the Sathar do try to counterattack. Any attempts at persuasion will be rebuffed. A character with Psycho-social skills may try an empathy check to noticed that the speaker is frustrated and afraid; and most likely being manipulated. The Council Building is a standard government building with it's own computer and enviornmental controls. The windows to the Council Chamber are mirrored on the outside. The security station is on the lower levels as well as the building enviornmental controls. As long as the characters don't cause too much trouble before entry (i.e. giving the Sathar agents reason to be suspicious), they will be allowed into the building without scrutiny. If the characters attempt to go to the Council; the four RIK guards on duty will inform them that they are not to be disturbed and will draw weapons if need be (use the RIK statistics from the Laser Battery assault if the characters insist on a firefight). Hopefully the characters will try to gain more intelligence before trying a frontal assault. The RIK security will allow them access to the security systems, if they wish to look at the camera records from the past 24 hours. There are no cameras in the Council Chambers, but on review they can see where a group of five maintenence workers entered the Council Chamber with one of the house leaders and never left. The exact description of the building is not included here due to the fact that many players may come up with different plans, and it is up to the GM as to how each would work. There are air ducts leading to the Council Chambers and if the enviornmental controls were changed the room could be pumped with double strength doze gas very rapidly. There is a bathroom off the Council Chamber that could be accessed by enterprising characters for recon either by cutting through the wall of a nearby room or sending a spybot through the air ducts. Once the characters disable the Installation Security, the alarms in the building will not go off. All RIK personelle are as above. The Computer is a level 4 system: Installation Security lvl 6, Computer Security lvl 6, and Enviornmental lvl 2 (in case the characters do things the hard way instead of trying to convince the security personelle that there is something wrong and potentially a hostage crisis) and there are 6 RIK on duty in the security room. The Council Chamber is a 20m x 30m room with several monitors and chairs providing much soft cover. There are five Sathar agents in the room as per the Laser Battery stats except #5 has the popper replaced with an explorer's vest loaded with eight fragmentation grenades; all linked to the same dentonator, and he has an anti-shock implant. The first four agents are sitting around the room in different locations, and the fifth is sitting among the Council Members and the General. At any sign of being attacked he will dentonate the greandes all at once. If the characters "burst in" unannounced they will have 1 turn to attack before initiative. If they give any sign of forewarning (like fighting the guards to the room), they will have to roll standard initiative as they enter. Once the situation is resolved (for better or worse), the orders for the army are recinded and the troops move back into defensive positions under the cover of the Laser Batteries.
RECLAIMING THE STATION
As the UPF fleet approaches the planet, a message on command channels from Rear Admiral Bogarub asks for an update of the situation. The characters and RIK command apprise the fleet of the current situation. "I know it's a been hard on you all, but I must ask a favor from Star Law. The station in orbit is key to defense as well as a needed resource for resupply for the UPF in this sector. The Sathar may intend on destroying it before letting it return to our control. When the Sathar fleet begins to deploy against us, I'll need you to return to the station with a small strike force to secure the station from harm. Good luck; Bogarub out." Allow the characters to outfit themselves as desired from the equipment at Star Law HQ; as well as anything onboard the Defiant. The ship contains enough personal space equipment (as shown on page #52 of the Knight Hawks rule book), for each character to outfit themselves as they wish. Once they are ready they recieve the notice of the Sathar ships moving to engage the UPF fleet. As the players lift off from Kraatar, they will have two turns in spaceship movement/combat before docking. First they will move into orbit, the station's Laser Battery and Rocket Battery will fire defensively, then they may return fire (if they wish). Next the station will move closer to them as they begin to syncronize for docking and the Defiant will get an automatic hit from both the station's batteries as they manouever into the docking bay. Once inside they can no longer be hit by the station's weapons. As they enter the docking bay, they will see a Sathar fighter also docked in the bay. Once they have docked, opened the airlock, and exited the ship; they will be attacked by 20 Sathar (STR/STA: 40/40, DEX/RS: 40/40, INT/LOG: 45/45, PER/LDR: 45/65). 10 will hang back for the fight and are Beam 2; armed with laser rifles set at 4 SEU with 2 extra clips and albedo suits under their spacesuits. The other 10 will move foreward to engage the characters at close range and are Beam 3; armed with sonic disruptors, electrostunners, with 2 extra powerclips, and albedo suits under their spacesuits and spacesuit armor. Those with armor also are using rocket packs in this zero-g area. Note the Sathar did not decompress the area, but may try to if the characters are not wearing spacesuits. It will take one Sathar two turns to move to another airlock, and another turn to get the airlock door opened. The docking ring will then be fully decompressed in six turns (see page #36 of the Knight Haws rule book for rules on decompression). For simplicity, assume that the Sathar all start within 40 meters of the airlock when the ambush begins. In this case the Sathar have no cover. Once the battle is over, the characters will have to proceed to the main causeway in the space station. Once again use the commercial deck section map. 40 Sathar will be waiting for them as they exit the elevator. These Sathar will be armed as above with the same stats and skills, except there will be 10 with sonic disruptors/electrostunners and instead of spacesuits and spacesuit armor they have inertia screens with power beltpacks; and 30 with laser rifles and no spacesuits. They start with the laser troops split up in the kitchen, spacer club, near the clothing store, and frontier lounge (using the doors as cover). Those with disruptors are to the right of the elevators. The characters may choose which elevator they are exiting from. Remember that the map scale is 2m per square. Once the battle is over the characters may proceed to the command area. Once they reach the command area they will be able to scan the rest of the station, to realize there are no more Sathar onboard. If they don't think to check the docking bay, have one of the nearby UPF ships radio them and let them know there is an energy buildup coming from the station noted on energy sensors. It is coming from the Sathar fighter. The characters will have 40 minutes to get the fighter 1000 meters from the station before it's atomic engine overloads. It will take them 10 minutes to reach it. Once there, the Defiant can push it out to 1000m with manoeuvering thrusters in 20 min. If they attempt to jettison the engine with the Sathar controls; an engineer will have a 10% + 10% per level chance of getting the right controls to jettison it. Each attempt takes 5 minutes. Using a Laser Powertorch; it can be cut out of the ship in 10 minutes. To push it out it will take 2 workpods or 4 rocketpacks to accellerate it by 5 meters per turn, and there are 2 workpods in the Docking area nearby. During all of this, two Sathar fighters will return from the fight to attack the station. The characters will have to use the stations batteries or the Defiant to defend themselves. Once the danger is over, and the Sathar fleet is routed; the characters will be commended for their actions. Most likely they will advance in rank, and if they are at least Deputy Agents (as well as the required spaceship skills), they will be put in command of the Defiant. As well as being heros to the local populance, if they saved the Commercial Council members (without harm), they will be awarded the Kraatar Golden Sheaves of Gallantry.
